AudioQuest NightHawk Impressions and Discussion Thread

[GREQ]

 

  Havn't read the thread TLDR, but I just had to add one more +1 to the pile of likes in this thread.
 
After being somewhat disappointed with the original Nighthawk, the Nighthawk Carbon is a breath of fresh air. 
(Never owned either, but I often audition many top end / flagship headphones almost any time I like any day of the week in my lunch break near work)

It's the pads... sonically the two cans are the same. The NHs come with the "Classic" pads, which have the most radical tuning of the three pads offered; Carbons come with Boost and Ultra Suede. Which pads were on the Carbons you auditioned?

I have no idea 

 - I think we can assume it was the Ultra Suede, as these sounded much less 'bass boomy' than my previous experience.
I actually wasn't aware that two different pads were available.  Just wanted to leave the passing comment, spread the love, etc etc.

 

[Venture Guy]

  I have no idea 

 - I think we can assume it was the Ultra Suede, as these sounded much less 'bass boomy' than my previous experience.
I actually wasn't aware that two different pads were available.  Just wanted to leave the passing comment, spread the love, etc etc.

THREE different pads The NightHawks are the first headphones I know of that were designed to be tuned by changing pads. 

 

[shurealltheway]

I have no idea   - I think we can assume it was the Ultra Suede, as these sounded much less 'bass boomy' than my previous experience.
I actually wasn't aware that two different pads were available.  Just wanted to leave the passing comment, spread the love, etc etc.

There is no bass boom with the Boost pads on the Nightowl. It's some of the tightest, high-quality bass I've heard. I'd love to hear a Nighthawk some day.

 

[Venture Guy]

There is no bass boom with the Boost pads on the Nightowl. It's some of the tightest, high-quality bass I've heard. I'd love to hear a Nighthawk some day.

Or, get the Owls and add the Classic pads... Agreed, the bass and sub-bass is not like any cans I have heard.

 

[GREQ]

If it was indeed the Ultra Suede on the Carbon, the Nightowls definitely had the same pads, and I thought those could use a bass boost - the upper trebles were a bit too up-front by comparison. 
Interesting stuff.

 

[Venture Guy]

  If it was indeed the Ultra Suede on the Carbon, the Nightowls definitely had the same pads, and I thought those could use a bass boost - the upper trebles were a bit too up-front by comparison. 
Interesting stuff.

The Owls you listened to probably had the Boost pads...

 

[GREQ]

 

  If it was indeed the Ultra Suede on the Carbon, the Nightowls definitely had the same pads, and I thought those could use a bass boost - the upper trebles were a bit too up-front by comparison. 
Interesting stuff.

The Owls you listened to probably had the Boost pads...

hah ok, still interesting... maybe I'll go back to the shop and try swapping them around. 

 

[jarnopp]

This is my first post on this thread.i am also joined the nighthawk club from today.i bought a used pair ;so i guess i do not need any burnin.i have done some modification in stock pair so that it does not sound cloudy at all.Mids are now more pronounced;bass boom reduced.Now more airness in sound and congession also gone.Definitely an huge improvement ;all shortcoming of nighthawk are now gone.

Remove the diffusing paper on backside of driver.Also remove the felt material as well.

This mod is easy and reversible.If you do not like it you can reverse the process;its that damn easy.




Regards,

Has anyone else tried this yet and care to share the experience? (Maybe this weekend I will give it a go.). And, of course, how will it sound with the various pads...

 

[bugeyed]

  Um.  It depends on the application.

When I am in the car and I connect the DAC, I crank the DAC to 100% and adjust the audio from the car stereo. When I am listening directly to the DAC, I don't go to 100% because I still want to hear music again in the future. When connected to the PC, I crank it 100% and use the app to control the volume.

EDIT:  I just deleted all the text I was typing after that.  I switched USB ports on the back of the PC and now I can get the volume I expected AND I am starting to get exceptional sound definition and clarity I was hoping I would get! But I swear I connected it a number of times and it wasn't very impressive.  UGH!!!!  Is it the USB ports?
 

I think I remember AQ recommending that you set the volume in the app to 100% & use the DF volume control. This ensures that you are using the analog volume control in the DF. 
kev

 

[ninetylol]

Right i think i am all done with listening and reviewing the headphone for myself..... Its a Keeper !

Straight out of the box i think they sound awfull.
Burned in (300+ hours) they sound a little bit better but still not great IMO.

I seen many talk about EQ'ing the Nighthawk and so i tryed that.
Dale's EQ settings for the Nighthawk seem to be pretty known in this thread so i went for that first and slowly adjust to my own sound.

Straight away with Dale's EQ settings they sounded ALOT better, really the difference is HUGE.

This is Dale's EQ settings:



These are my settings after about 2months of listening and tweaking:




Basicly just a little bit different in the 20~500hz region and for the rest pretty much the same.
I reckon i used a little bit more bass and lower mids because i use pretty flat/sterile hardware.
(Simaudio Moon 300D V2 + Lehmann Linear)(Dont know what Dale used)

With EQ i love them so much i am thinking of selling my HD650.

Thanks mate helped a ton!

 

[kartik7405]

Has anyone else tried this yet and care to share the experience? (Maybe this weekend I will give it a go.). And, of course, how will it sound with the various pads...

Hahaa i re do the mod with minor change  ;i cannot have gut to challange skylar invension.
Added damping inside the cups as some measurement indicates that Nighthawk does have cup reflection  and  removed the diffusing paper.keep the black circular felt;its necessary.
 
Thanks for looking.I know noone will do it;but i feel this mod fit to my taste with stock classic pads.

 

[knowhatimean]

 

This is my first post on this thread.i am also joined the nighthawk club from today.i bought a used pair ;so i guess i do not need any burnin.i have done some modification in stock pair so that it does not sound cloudy at all.Mids are now more pronounced;bass boom reduced.Now more airness in sound and congession also gone.Definitely an huge improvement ;all shortcoming of nighthawk are now gone.

Remove the diffusing paper on backside of driver.Also remove the felt material as well.

This mod is easy and reversible.If you do not like it you can reverse the process;its that damn easy.




Regards,

Has anyone else tried this yet and care to share the experience? (Maybe this weekend I will give it a go.). And, of course, how will it sound with the various pads...

I'll only make a short comment here, but I would advise against being so ready to think that what your hearing from these headphones is their true & final nature, Its not.
 
Further, If you start removing parts of the HP at this early, you may stop them from ever reaching what they're capable of sounding like. On the other hand, absolutely do play around with the various pads & take notice of how the different pads sound characteristics work for or against the sound of different type of music (Even how the sound changes with different pads will change eventually)
 
It's absolutely true that it's important to put as many hours as possible on these headphone ,before making the call "This is how these headphones sound". Instead just take some satisfaction in the 'parts' of the sound that you're enjoying now. The amount of those 'parts' will increase if you can just "hold on" for a while. If there is any way you can leave music play them for a few hours of time when you're not listening helps to speed up getting those 'Burn" hours on the drivers

 

[Gaikotsu]

  I think I remember AQ recommending that you set the volume in the app to 100% & use the DF volume control. This ensures that you are using the analog volume control in the DF. 
kev

My DF doesn't have analoge volume control.That is the DF Black.  Mine is the DF Red.  It has a digital volume control.

 

[Gaikotsu]

  I'll only make a short comment here, but I would advise against being so ready to think that what your hearing from these headphones is their true & final nature, Its not.
 
Further, If you start removing parts of the HP at this early, you may stop them from ever reaching what they're capable of sounding like. On the other hand, absolutely do play around with the various pads & take notice of how the different pads sound characteristics work for or against the sound of different type of music (Even how the sound changes with different pads will change eventually)
 
It's absolutely true that it's important to put as many hours as possible on these headphone ,before making the call "This is how these headphones sound". Instead just take some satisfaction in the 'parts' of the sound that you're enjoying now. The amount of those 'parts' will increase if you can just "hold on" for a while. If there is any way you can leave music play them for a few hours of time when you're not listening helps to speed up getting those 'Burn" hours on the drivers

I admit that in the beginning of using NH HPs I noticed the sharp drop in mid-treble sound.  The more I used them, the more I realized that a majority of that sound drop is in the recording itself and the HPs weren't trying to make an effort to fix that...like some headphones do when they purposely amp up the treble. The BOSE QC25s did that, and at that time I used to think it was a best sound.

Albeit, it can be argued that I have grown accustom to the way the NHs sound and I won't argue that. However, I will say that a large part of the problem is that no one is willing to ship their "broken in" Nhs to other people to see how it compares.  We also aren't using the same equipment with the same power....

As has been said many times over...if you're enjoying the music...what else matters?

 

[Venture Guy]

  I admit that in the beginning of using NH HPs I noticed the sharp drop in mid-treble sound.  The more I used them, the more I realized that a majority of that sound drop is in the recording itself and the HPs weren't trying to make an effort to fix that...like some headphones do when they purposely amp up the treble. The BOSE QC25s did that, and at that time I used to think it was a best sound.
 

Actually, there is a dip at 1KHz, which I assume is related to Skylar's incorporation of the Head-Related Transfer Function to tune the NHs. You can see in the upper left-hand graph of this measurement by Tyll: http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AudioQuestNightHawk2015.pdf